Oyster Wars

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Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Homer's Odyssey is one of the foundational literary works of Western civilization for a reason.

It speaks to the journey that we all take in life, braving various difficulties as we struggle to find home, whatever that might mean for each of us.

For some people, home is a metaphor.

For others, it's a very literal place.

During World War I in Russia, one band of soldiers tried desperately to return to their homeland.

But to get there, they had to fight several armies and travel in the completely wrong direction.

The Czech and Slovak people are two distinct subgroups of Slavs who suffered under the oppression of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for decades.

Austria had closer ethnic ties to Germany, and so at the onset of World War I in 1914, they sided with Germany and the Central Powers.

This gave the Czechs and Slovaks the opportunity to declare their own state, Czechoslovakia, and fight with the Allied powers.

Now, this Czechoslovakian legion fought on many fronts, but the bulk of their force was stationed in Russia.

The legion consisted of over 40,000 soldiers as well as wives, children, and civilian aides.

They helped Tsar Nicholas's armies fight the Germans until the fateful year of 1917, when the Russian Civil War broke out and the Czechoslovakian Legion suddenly found themselves in an awkward position.

Russia withdrew for World War I as internal struggles between the Red Bolsheviks and the White Tsarists tore the country apart.

The Czechoslovak Legion didn't want to choose a side.

They wanted to get back to fighting Germany and winning independence for their own country.

But the problem was the Legion couldn't just go back west into contested Austria-Hungary without the support of the Russians.

And so they had to take a long railroad trip east across Siberia so that they could sail across either the Pacific or Indian Oceans to re-enter their homeland from the south or the west.

The Bolshevik army agreed to let them do this.

And at first it seemed like the Legion would have a relatively smooth trip home.

But then disaster struck.

In May of 1918, the train containing the Czechoslovak Legion made a pit stop at a station at the same time that a train full of Austro-Hungarian prisoners made a stop.

Tensions were high and they soon boiled over.

One of the prisoners in the Austro-Hungarian car threw a piece of iron that struck a Czech member of the Legion.

He was seriously hurt and a fight soon broke out.

The scuffle was eventually ended, but the Legion had killed the Austro-Hungarian prisoner who threw the piece of iron.

The Bolsheviks were furious that the Legion had harmed one of their prisoners.

They demanded that the Legion hand hand over all of its weapons, but the Legion refused.

Instead, they took an armed train from the Bolsheviks and took off along the railroad.

They became a sort of mobile city-state.

Again, there were tens of thousands of soldiers in the Legion, and they were all now concentrated along the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

They had multiple trains with various cars, including a bakery and even their own bank that they used to barter with different towns as they passed through.

It was, in a way, a World War I-era version of Snowpiercer.

They clashed occasionally with the Bolsheviks as they continued east.

In November of 1918, they learned that the war was over and their new nation had officially been recognized.

They had more reason than ever to want to get home, but the Allies wanted them to stay in Russia and fight the Bolsheviks.

They did this for a time, but they struggled to do much against such a huge army along such a long and freezing railroad.

And throughout 1919, it became clear that the remaining white Russian forces would not be able to prevail against the Bolsheviks.

As the Legion caravan arrived on the eastern coast of Russia, they began to load their troops into ships and start the long voyage home.

Some traveled south around India, while others traveled east and actually crossed North America.

The majority made it home safely and could now begin the work of building their new country.

That is, until the next World War, when the Nazis invaded them.

After that, Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviet Union, ironically merging with Russia after all their ancestors had fought to escape it.

In 1992, after the fall of the USSR, Czechoslovakia split into two nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, finally giving both ethnic groups a place they could call home.

It was a curious odyssey, one that made homers seem brief by comparison.

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It was 1781 and the Revolutionary War was over.

As the British surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, the Americans were finally masters of their own country, no longer ruled by a king.

They would soon learn that winning a war was the easy part.

Running a country with a new kind of democratic government?

Well, that would be much harder.

And the creation of the American Constitution, the document on which the country based all its laws, would take blood, sweat, and a whole lot of oysters.

In 1785, the Potomac River was one of the world's best areas for oysters.

But these salty little shellfish weren't just delicious, they were also big money.

Oyster harvesters up and down the river and the Chesapeake Bay were raking it in, literally.

And big money, of course, led to bigger problems.

The Potomac River divides the states of Maryland and Virginia, and both states wanted to own the river's oysters.

Skirmishes had been breaking out for years between Maryland and Virginia watermen, and both sides claimed that they had a mandate.

The state of Virginia said that in 1632, King Charles of England had signed a charter giving the river to them.

Virginia argued that it had an earlier charter from King James, Charles' father, that promised them the river.

Although the states were technically united after the Revolutionary War, it was a loose union.

Many of the states operated under their own rules.

And the Articles of Confederation, the federal laws that bound the former British colonies together, didn't say anything about commerce between the states.

The central government had no power over the oysters, and Virginia and Maryland couldn't come to an agreement.

Americans feared that if the conflict wasn't settled soon, it might spill into an all-out war and the American experiment would be over before it truly started.

In the middle of the budding oyster battle came a familiar figure, James Madison.

Today we know him as the fourth president of the United States.

Back then though, most Americans knew him as a Virginia legislator.

Madison and the other delegates from Virginia and Maryland were invited to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, to help put this whole oyster war to rest.

After several days, the Virginians and Marylanders were able to hammer out the Compact of 1785, which established that oystermen from both states could freely use the river.

The Maryland and Virginian oyster war was averted, but the issue at its core was still keeping Madison up at night.

If the country was to succeed, it needed a stronger federal government, making it a united country, not just a loose confederation.

So, Madison proposed that they needed to meet again to discuss how to structure that central government.

Delegates from every colony met in Philadelphia in 1787, and over months of debate, proposals, and revisions, they came up with the U.S.

Constitution, the document that lays out the American federal system that we still use nearly 250 years later.

And with it, we can deal with the important stuff, you know, things like interstate oyster trade.

As for the oysters, the peace from the 1785 Compact held for nearly 100 years until after the Civil War.

By then, the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay was providing more than half of the world's oysters, which attracted a unique type of opportunist to its waters, oyster pirates.

Beyond the pirates illegally fishing oysters, New England oystermen were also invading the waters after their northern oyster beds had been overfished.

And this crowding led to multiple violent incidents and both Maryland and Virginia establishing an armed oyster police force.

The oyster wars finally ended in 1959 after a Potomac River fisheries officer killed an illegal oyster harvester.

The fisheries disarmed the fisheries police and since then, no blood has been spilled over Potomac oysters.

So the next time you eat a Chesapeake oyster, remember what that little bivalve brought us.

The sweet taste of freedom.

I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting CuriositiesPodcast.com.

This show was created by me, Aaron Mankey, in partnership with How Stuff Works.

I make another award-winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show.

And you can learn all about it over at theworldoflore.com.

And until next time, stay curious.

This show is sponsored by American Public University, American Public University, where service members like you can access high-quality, affordable education built for your lifestyle.

With online programs that fit around deployments, training, and unpredictable schedules, APU makes it possible to earn your degree no matter where duty takes you.

Their preferred military rates keep tuition at just $250 per credit hour for undergraduate and master's tuition.

And with 24-7 mental health support, plus career coaching and other services, APU is committed to your success during and after your service.

Learn more at apu.apus.edu slash military.

That's apu.apus.edu slash military.

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